PSA: You Don’t Actually Own Any of the Movies You Buy in iTunes!

Remember the olden days when having a movie library meant having cabinets and shelves stacked with actual Blu-rays, or DVDs, or VHS tapes? Things have become a lot simpler over the last decade thanks to streaming and digital purchases. Now you can keep all the movies you own on digital shelves, which take up significantly less space (as in zero space).

Oh–except there’s one major catch that none of us think about when we hit “buy” in iTunes or other digital storefronts: you don’t actually own jack! Unlike when you purchase a DVD and have that physical DVD in your possession at least until it gets scratched or the heat death of the universe, the same isn’t so for digital purchases as one person recently realized in a Twitter thread.

Me: Hey Apple, three movies I bought disappeared from my iTunes library.Apple: Oh yes, those are not available anymore. Thank you for buying them. Here are two movie rentals on us!Me: Wait… WHAT?? @tim_cook when did this become acceptable? pic.twitter.com/dHJ0wMSQH9

Imagine the horror, logging into your iTunes account to see movies you paid dollars for just… gone! And for your trouble, you get a few free rentals so you can temporarily watch movies that aren’t the one you were looking for to begin with.

How can iTunes get away with this? You know all that fine print that you just agree to when you log into iTunes or setup any of your new Mac devices, and probably whenever you purchase anything in the iTunes store? I say probably because I, like all of you, just agree to whatever term is dropped in front of my face because I don’t want to read pages and pages of legalese before watching Book Club (now on VOD). If you did read through everything, you’d learn that “buying” things in digital storefronts is really just purchasing access to that movie/show/book/album for as long as they’re available. Think of it as a longterm rental.

It’s easy to forget that this is what a digital purchase is because most media does stay put for the long haul–or at least as long as a haul can be for a media format that’s only been around for just over a decade. I bought Spider-Man 2 for my video iPod almost 10 years ago and I still have access to it because whoever makes these deals has continued to agree to allow it to stay in iTunes. So I own Spider-Man 2, but only so long as iTunes and Sony don’t get into a colossal bridge-burning spat. Then I’ll really be kicking myself for trading in that Spider-Man 2 DVD for a nickel a few years ago!

If you’re worried that iTunes may someday lose your favorite movie, you could always go back to the ol’ DVDs and shelves method of storing your iTunes library.